PERCY, WILLIAMS & WARD GENEALOGY
(version 8/22/10)
Please email corrections to Mike Clark

The Ward, Williams and Percy families are a long line of very well-known, 19^th century London engravers and painters who descend from James Ward, senior and his wife Rachel Goldsmith,the earliest ancestors for whom we know more than just a name and a date. Although neither James nor Rachel can be described as artists, the engravings and paintings of their descendants are much sought after in the art world, and command high prices at some of most prestigious auction houses of today.

1. James Ward, Senior (d. c.1796) was probably born sometime in the 1730s in the City of London, which refers to that part of the medieval city that was once enclosed by the now demolished London Wall. He gained employment as a young man with the 'Cider and Fruit Merchants', a firm located near Thames Street on the north bank of the Thames River. His son James remembered him as being good with his hands, and quite industrious in his early years, such that he rose to the position of a foreman with his company, and he might have been destined for greater things, had he not turned to drink. He was ultimately let go by the firm, and never regained meaningful employment. Indeed, had it not been for the successes and subsequent support of his children, he would lived out his remaining years in poverty. As it was, his son James remembered his father as sitting in his later years by the fireplace in a drunken stupor, smoking a long pipe with a jug a ale at his side, as shown here in a sketch by the younger James.

   James Ward, Senior married a pious woman named Rachel (Rachael) Goldsmith at the St. Leonard Shoreditch Church in the Hackney borough of London on Feb. 21, 1762. Rachel, was the daughter of a tin plate worker named John Goldsmith and his wife Ann. She was born in London on Aug. 21, 1737, and baptized at the St. Giles Cripplegate Church the next day. An older sister named Ann, who was baptized Aug. 29, 1729 at the St. Botolph without Aldersgate Church, later married James Ward's older brother Thomas. Another older sister named Mary, who was baptized Jan. 30, 1731 at St. Botolphs, married a man named Daniel Gent (b. c.1732) on July 25, 1755 at St. Giles, Camberwell Church in the Southwark borough of London. Daniel, who is referred to by James Junior as 'Uncle Gent' is said to have invented a color printing process, but of more importance, he probably had connections in the engraving business that later enabled his nephews to gain apprenticeships in that trade.

   Although nothing is known of the parents of James Ward, he had at least two older brothers. 'Uncle Thomas', of whom we have already mentioned, lived near James' household and is said to have been a pious member of a local church. Thomas married twice, first to a woman of whom we know nothing, then after her death he married his sister-in-law Ann Goldsmith on June 23, 1771 at same church where James and Rachel Ward wed. In fact, Rachel was a witness at her sister's wedding. Uncle Thomas died in the late 1770s, perhaps very early 1780s, leaving behind a young son from his second marriage. Another brother named William apparently was religious also, and may have had a daughter named Mary Ann, nicknamed Emma, who became the first wife of James Ward, Junior.

   James Ward, Senior died sometime after the 1795 marriage of his son James. Rachel Ward survived her husband by many years and was in her 90s when she died. She was still alive in 1827, as her son James married his second wife Charlotte Fritche that year, and there is a painting by him titled 'The Family Compact' showing Rachel sitting with her new daughter-in-law. There is also a portrait of Rachel Ward (shown here) by James that was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in 1830, but it may have been painted earlier.

   James and Rachel Ward had at least six children. Biographer Julia Frankau says there were eight, but identifies only five.

   children - WARD

   William Ward, was christened on Feb. 21, 1762 at St. John Zachary Church in London, seven months after the marriage of his parents. He was apprenticed around 1775 to the celebrated engraver John Raphael Smith, probably through business connections of William's Uncle Gent. He became one of the premier mezzotint engravers of London, and through his business became friendly with George Morland the painter, and with Morland's sister Maria. William ultimately married Maria Morland on Sept. 22, 1786 in a dual wedding where his sister Ann also married Maria's brother George. Also, William engraved some 69 of George Morland's paintings, as well as numerous portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a few historical pictures. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795 and was later appointed mezzotint engraver to the Prince Regent, and the Duke of York. In 1814 he was elected an associate in the Royal Academy of Art. He died suddenly in London on December 21, 1826. Of his marriage with Maria Morland were born two sons, William James Ward (c.1800-1840) and Martin Theodore Ward (1799-1874), both of whom became artists, and died in unfortunate circumstances. A portrait of William Ward by his brother-in-law George Morland is shown here.

   Mary Ward (b. 1764) who follows:

   Ann Ward, was born March 24, 1767 and christened on April 12th of the same year at St. James Garlickhithe Church in London. She married the celebrated painter George Morland, a friend and business acquantaince of her brother William, in a dual ceremony with William and his bride Maria Morland on Sept. 22, 1786 at St. Pauls Church in Hammersmith, London. Her husband was given to legendary excess and died of 'brain fever' on Oct. 29, 1804. Ann died in a convulsive fit of grief three days later, and she and her husband were interred together in the St. James Chapel on Piccadilly Street in central London (Westminster). They had no children.

   James Ward, was born Oct. 23, 1769 on Thames Street in the City of London, and christened Nov. 12 of the same year at All Hallows the Great Church in the City of London. He spent his childhood in poverty working in the Thames Street cider cellars and as a dish washer at Three Cranes Wharf, but his fortunes changed when was apprenticed at about the age of 15 first to the mezzotint engraver George Raphael Smith, then to his brother William Ward, who had been Smith's former apprentice. Rapidly gaining a reputation as one of London's finest engravers, Ward was appointed engraver to the Prince of Wales on Jan. 1, 1794. He married Mary Ann (Emma) Ward on Dec. 4, 1794 at St. Marylebone Church in Westminster, London. Although Frankau (1904, p. 25) says that Emma was the daughter of his Uncle William, Grundy (1909, p. xxii) says she was unrelated. His sister Sarah and Sarah's husband Henry Chalon were witnesses at the wedding.

   Despite his enviable reputation as an engraver, Ward aspired to be a painter. Although his Uncle George Morland formally refused Ward's request to serve as his mentor, Morland nonetheless probaby served as Ward's main, if unwilling, inspiration, and Ward was able to successfully reinvent himself in the new medium. Although equally adept at portraits and landscapes, he made his mark primarily as an animal painter, and he was elected a member to the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in 1811, four years after the Academy had granted him associate status. His first wife died in 1819, and she is probably to be identified with a Mary Ann Ward who was buried at the age of 50 on Sept. 3, 1819 at the same St. Marylebone Church where she had been wed. He married his second wife Charlotte Fritch, who may have been his cousin, in Derbyshire on Oct. 27, 1827. Their marriage record in the parish church gives his profession as 'Royal Academian'. His career declined in his later years, yet the Royal Academy saw fit to grant him an annual pension of £100, which saw him through until his death on Nov. 16, 1859, having just reached his 90th birthday. He and Mary Ann (Emma) Ward had five children, three of whom survived, and one of whom, George Raphael Ward (1797-1852), followed his father as an engraver and painter.

   Sarah Ward was christened at the St. Martin-Vintry Church in the City of London on Nov.7, 1773. Although it was probably James who introduced her to the painter Henry Bernard Chalon (1770-1849), whom she married on Aug. 1, 1794 at St. Marylebone Church in Westminster, London, her husband and James later became estranged. The contempt that James Ward developed for Henry Chalon became so great that after Chalon died, James attempted to influence Chalon's biographer to portray his subject in an unflattering manner. Sarah and Henry Chalon had one child, Maria A. Chalon (1800-1867), who became a miniature painter and married Henry Moseley.

   Charlotte Ward, who biographer Cecil Grundy (1909, p. xxi-xxii) writes served as her brother James' housekeeper in 1794 when he was living at Paddington. One wonders if she is the same Charlotte Ward who married Charles Leslie on Sept. 18, 1805 at St. George the Martyr Church in Southwark, London?

    

2. Mary Ward (1764-1832), the daughter of James Ward and Rachel Goldsmith, was born in London on Feb. 1, 1764, and christened Feb. 17 at the St. Michael Paternoster Church. She is said to have been very beautiful, but had a sharp tongue, and was given to wild ways. She was not liked by her younger brother James. She ran away with an engraver named Edward Williams, who was a drinking companion of her brother-in-law George Morland, and she had at least two children with Edward out of wedlock before she married him on Feb. 7, 1788 at the St. Pancras Old Church in the Camden borough of London, with her father as a witness to the wedding. Sometime afterward, she left Williams for another man, probably William Sandbach, whom she subsequently married at St. Mary's Church in the Islington borough of London on Nov. 11, 1802. There is an engraving of her by her brother William Ward titled the 'The Musing Charmer' (shown at right). Another engraving by Mary's husband Edward Williams titled 'The Lovely Brunette' (lower left), which is after a drawing by William Ward, is probably of the same woman. She died at the age of 68 in London, and was buried on Sept. 14, 1832 under the name of Mary Sandbach at Saint James Church on Piccadilly Street in central London (Westminster).

   Edward Williams the engraver died sometime prior to 1797, as Henry Morland, the father of George Morland, is known to have made to Mary Ward's brother James an enquiry as to the circumstances of Edward Williams' death, and Henry Morland's own death took place in 1797. Williams is said to have known William Hogarth (1697-1764), which would indicate that Williams was several years older than his wife, who would have been born the same year Hogarth died. Edward Williams is also said to have been a fair engraver, and he is responsible for several prints after Thomas Rowlandson, most notably 'A College Scene', and another in a collection of prints titled 'Polygamy', which today would be considered pornographic. There is also an engraving by Williams of a drawing by Rowlandson's friend Henry Wigstead titled the 'The Country Vicar's Fireside', as well as an engraving called 'The Coke and Perkin' in a short collection of prints of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. A story of a drinking adventure that Edward Williams shared with his brother-in-law George Morland is recounted in John Hassel's biography on Morland that was published in 1806.

   Edward Willams and Mary Ward had at least two children, who are listed below.

   children - WILLIAMS

   Edward Williams (1782-1855) who follows:

   Sophia Williams, who was probably the younger child, but this is not known for sure. She married Charles Hildebrant at the Saint Pancras Old Church in the Camden borough of London on May 23, 1803, where her brother Edward was a witness. Edward later married Charles' sister Ann in the same church. Sophia and Charles had at least five children, of whom William Charles Hildebrant was baptized on the same day and in the same church as Sophia's nephew George Augustus Williams.

   Sophia Williams may be the same woman as a Sophia Williams who was born March 16, 1784 to parents Edward and Mary Williams, and baptized at Saint Anne Soho in Westminster on April 11. If so, then there is a third child named John, who was born to parents Edward and Mary Williams on March 13, 1781, and baptized at the same church on April 6. However, this is speculation, and the similar names are probably a coincidence, as Sophia's brother Edward Williams was not baptized at St. Anne Soho, but at St. Mary Lambeth.

    

3. Edward Williams (1781-1855), the son of Edward Williams the engraver and Mary Ward, was born in London, and baptized Oct. 13, 1781 at the St. Mary Church in the Lambeth parish. Sometime around 1792 or 1793, probably about the time his mother left his father for another man, the younger Edward was sent to live with his maternal uncle, James Ward the painter. The fact that Ward scarcely mentions Edward in his writings, suggests that little if any art instruction was given, yet Edward must have certainly been influenced by his brief association with Ward. Another famous uncle, who likewise gave no instruction, was the notorious painter George Morland, a child prodigy whose excesses were as legendary as his skill with the brush. After a short residence with Ward, Edward was apprenticed to a carver and gilder named Hillier, who was not in any of the trade guilds but nontheless had a shop on Silver Street, Golden Square, London. Thus Edward probably began his career carving and gilding picture frames, but he is said to have also painted miniatures to supplement his income.

   Edward married Ann Hildebrant, the daughter of Frederick and Sarah Hildebrant, at St. Pancras Church in London on Feb. 12, 1806. Ann had been baptized July 14, 1780 at the St. Mary Church in the Whitechapel Parish of the Stepney Borough of London, and she had at least three siblings - Celina Mary, Charles Edward and William Charles, all of whom were christened at the same church as Ann, but in the year 1813. Her brother Charles married Sophia Williams, the sister of Ann's husband to be. Her father, who was named Charles also, was a carver, the same occupation that Ann's husband Edward had apprenticed in, and Charles and Edward probably devoted at least some of their time, if not most of it, to carving picture frames, which would have put them in contact with painters.

   Although trained as a carver and gilder, Edward Williams was surrounded by relatives who were well-known painters and engravers, and as the years went by he reinvented himself as a painter. He started by copying Dutch Baroque landscapes from the 1600s, in the style Ruisdael and Hobbema, then moved on to comtemporary landscapes that, not surprizingly, hint of his uncle George Morland. Ultimately, he became known for moonlight scenes, and, as he got older, for river scenes along the Thames. However, he is best known for being the father of six sons, all of whom became artists. As their fame grew, and with it their pocket books, the family moved in 1846 from Cromer Street, London to a house at 32 Castlenau Villas in Barnes, Surrey. This house, which still exists as 92 Castlenau, had a large coach house that became the family studio. The many landscapes coming out of this studio, similar in style and themes, gave rise to the attribution of the 'Williams School of Painters', or simply the 'Barnes School' - a testament to Edward Williams, who became known in his later years as "Old Williams", to distinguish him from his son Edward Chales Williams.

   Old Williams' wife Ann was buried at the Barnes Parish Church on Sept. 24, 1851, and Old Williams is said to have never quite overcome the grief from her passing. He died just four years later at the age of 74 at the Castelanu Villas on June 24, 1855. He is buried, presumably near Ann, in the Old Barnes Cemetery, where we are told that the inscription on his tombstone could still be read a few years ago.

   children - WILLIAMS

   Edward Charles Williams (1807-1881), was born in London on July 10, 1807, and baptized Sept. 13, 1807 at St. Mary Church in the St. Marylebone parish of Westminster. His father taught him to paint, which is evident from the similarity of their works, both painting woodland scenes reminiscent of early Dutch landscape artists. Edward Charles lived in and around London most of his life, and many of his paintings feature the surrounding countrysides of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex. As neither father nor son consistently signed their works, it can be very difficult to ascertain which one painted a given canvas. Edward married his first wife Mary Ann Challenger on Dec. 11, 1839 at the St. Marylebone Church in Westminster. Mary Ann died in London in 1857, and his only child Alice Amelia Williams was born the following year to Sarah Susannah Horley, who had been Mary Ann's nurse – the two did not marry officially for another 10 years until Oct. 3, 1868, when they wed at the St. Pancras Old Church in Camden, London. Though unwed at the time, they had listed Mary Ann's surname as Williams four years earliler, when they bapitized their daughter Alice on May 11, 1862 at St. John the Evangelist Church in Lambeth, London. Interestingly, Edward gave his profession on the baptism certificate as a carver and gilder, not as an artist, the former being the trade that his father had started in as an apprentice 70 years before. Edward Charles died "in respectable poverty" on July 25, 1881 in Shepherds Bush, London.

   Henry John Boddington (born Williams) (1811-1865), was born in London on Oct. 14, 1811 and baptized Aug. 17, 1813 at St. Mary Church in the St. Marylebone parish of Westminster, at the same time as his brother George. Although his father and older brother trained him as an artist, he soon developed his own style, characterized by country scenes with sunlight filtering through trees onto animals or people in a warm glade, or shadowed country lane. He married Clarissa "Clara" Eliza Boddington (b. c.1813) on Nov. 28, 1833 in the St. Pancras Church in Camden, London, and adopted her maiden name to distinguish his art from that of his family. He became very popular and was invited in 1842, at the age of only 31 to join the prestigious Royal Society of British Artists. His only son Edwin Henry Boddington was born on October 14, 1836 when Henry and Clara were living in the Islington District of London. Later, they lived at Gray's Inn Road (1839-1846), Fulham (1846-1849), and Hammersmith (1849-1854), before moving to an expensive house on Lonsdale Road, Barnes, where Henry lived out his remaining years. A progressive ailment, probably a brain tumor, robbed him of his sight and abilities in the final two years of his life, and he died on April 11, 1865 in Barnes at the age of 54. He was buried in the Old Barnes Cemetery, next to his father's grave, under his given name of Williams. Clara adopted his name after his death and died Clarissa Williams in March, 1905 in Islington, London, forty years after the passing of her husband.

   Edwin Henry Boddington, the only child of Henry and Clara Boddington, was born in Islington, London on Oct. 14, 1836 under the family name of Williams, but he later went by the name of Boddington. It has been suggested that his primary motivation in doing so was to capitalize on his father's fame as a painter. Edwin married Helena Frances Smith in 1856 and had four children - Ada Clara, Henry, Isabel Blanche and Percy Reginald (1866-1948) - some of whom later emigrated to Australia. Several online auction houses place his death in 1905 in London, but it is also possible that he emigrated to Australia and died there.

   George Augustus Williams (1814-1901), was born May 4, 1814 in London, and baptized Aug. 17, 1814 at St. Mary Church in the St. Marylebone parish of Westminster in central London, together with his cousin William Charles Hildebrant. He inherited his artistic talent, as did his brothers, from his father. However, his work is distinct from that of the other members of his family, and is characterized by moonlight and twilight winter scenes of villages and stables, often with horses and a light dusting of snow. His paintings were mainly exhibited at the Suffolk Street Gallery, but he also exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1841 onwards, and at the British Institution and elsewhere. He married Caroline Smith (b. c.1837) at the St. Pancras Church in Camden, London on Feb. 19, 1835 in a double wedding with Caroline's sister Caroline Matilda Smith to Edward Brett. About 1846, they moved to the Castelenau Villas in Barnes, London, near the Thames River. Caroline died probably sometime in the 1850s, and George's daughter Caroline, who is said to have been a young woman at the time, became his housekeeper. Caroline stayed with her father in Barnes for the next fifty or so years, leaving only after his death. George died at the Villas on May 26, 1901, and was buried in the Old Barnes cemetery in the grave of his father. Although George and Caroline Williams are said to have had at least four children, we have only be able to find official documentation for three.

   George Walter Williams, was born Nov. 29, 1834 in London, and baptized with his sister Caroline and his brother Frances on June 26, 1837 at the St. Pancras Church in Camden, London. He was a painter like his father, and he married another painter Jane Pearcy (d. 1872), with whom he had two children - Florence (b. c.1859) and Cyril (b. c.1864) - both of whom became painters also. He remarried two more times, after the deaths of each of his other wives, and died alone in poverty on April 14, 1906 in Richmond, Surrey. Some sources attribute to him a twin brother named George. However, as his baptismal record proves, George and Walter are the same person. He is easily confused with Walter Heath Williams, who is acutally a different painter.

   Caroline Fanny Williams was born, December 25, 1836 in St Marylebone, London, and baptized with her brothers on June 26, 1837 at St. Pancras Church in Camden, London. She was a painter, like her father. After her mother died, she became her father's housekeeper, and sometime in the 1870s she adopted Maud Marion Williams, the orphaned daughter of one of her brothers. She is said to have been devoted to Maud and the two of them remained with her father until after his death. She died December 30, 1921 at Forest Hill, London.

   Maud Marion Williams, was the daughter of one of Caroline Fanny Williams' brothers, either Francis or Frederick, but she was adopted by Caroline when she was orphaned at a very young age. UK Census Records indicate that she was born about 1870 in Surrey, possibly in Brixton or Mortlake, which are not far from Barnes. She apparently was a cripple with a deformed foot. She also maintained a list of family birthdates in a small book that was available to Jan Reynolds, author of the Williams Family of Painters. What became of her is unknown.

   Frances Augustus Williams was born May 26, 1837 in London, and baptized with his siblings on June 26, 1837 at St. Pancras Church in Camden, London. Nothing further is known of him, unless he is actually the same person as Frederick Williams, father of Maud Williams.

   Frederick Williams, who is said to have been the father of Maud Williams, and to have been an officer at Millbank Prison.

   Emily Ann Williams (b. 1816), was born June 7, 1816 in London and baptized June 30, 1816 at the same St. Mary Marylebone church in Westminster where her older brothers Edward, Henry and George were baptized. Her father Edward listed his trade on her baptism record as artist. She was a witness when her brother Henry married Clara Boddington in 1833. It has been suggested that Emily may be the mother of the Victorian landscape painter Charles Leslie (b. c.1840), who is not to be confused with Charles Robert Leslie, RA, the father of George Dunlop Leslie, RA. The lesser known Charles Leslie was born in the Pentonville Road area of the Islington borough of London at a time when Edward Charles Williams and George Augustus Williams also lived there, and he lived with, and presumably studied under, George Augustus Williams at 32 Castlenau Villas in 1856 and 1857. As such, he is certainly a member of the 'Barnes School of Painters'. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution, and Suffolk Street from 1856 to 1862, and he painted in a style very similar to Arthur Gilbert and Sidney Richard Percy. He married a woman named Esther in the late 1860s, and he may have had a son who was also named Charles, as an Arthur Gilbert style landscape exists that is signed 'Chas Leslie Snr 1875'. One wonders, what the relationship is, if any, of this Charles Leslie to a Charles Leslie who in 1805 married Charlotte Ward, possibly a younger sister of James Ward, RA? Also, is Charles Leslie to be identified with 1-year old Charles Williams who is listed with Emily Williams as a member of Edward Williams' household in the 1841 UK Census?

   Arthur Gilbert Frederick Williams (1819-1895), was born December 19, 1819 at Newington Butts Road in Stoke Newington, London. He studied painting under his father and older brothers, and became known for moonlit night scenes, and stark mountain landscapes uncluttered by trees or people. Like his brothers Henry and Sidney, he tried to distinguish himself from the other members of his family by avoiding the use of his surname, and his paintings are typically signed 'Arthur Gilbert'. He married Elizabeth Jane Williams (b. 1820), the daughter of John Williams, on January 23, 1843 at St. Martin in the Fields. One wonders if Arthur and Elizabeth might have been cousins. Their daughter Kate was born later that year, and the following year Arthur Gilbert was baptized Sept. 9 at the Old St. Pancras Church where his parents had been married. He lost Elizabeth to tuberculosis on Aug. 29, 1849, and married his second wife, Sarah Godfrey, the daughter of a clerk named John Godfrey, on June 28, 1854 at the Parish Church in Barnes. Their son Horace was born the following year.

   Arthur Gilbert lived in Weybridge and Hammersmith, but spent most of his years at Lonsdale Terrace in Barnes, close to the rest of his family at the Castlenau Villas. He moved to Redhill in 1873, then to De Tillens in Limpsfield, Surrey, which was his home for many years. He died April 21, 1895 in Croydon, Surrey near the residence of his brother Alfred.

   Kate Elizabeth Ellen Gilbert Williams, the only child of Arthur and Elizabeth Williams, was born December 17, 1843. She became a painter, and exhibited her works. She married a schoolmaster named Humphrey Hughes.

   Horace Walter Gilbert Williams, the only child of Arthur and Sarah Williams was born April 6, 1855. Like his father and sister, he became an artist and exhibited his works. However, he did not pursue art as a career, and worked as a civil servant. Patrick Nisbett, who is the great grandson of Horace Walter Gilbert is the author of an online genealogy that contains some information on the Williams family.

   Sidney Richard Williams (1821-1886) who follows:

   Alfred Walter Williams (1824-1905), was born July 18, 1824 in London, one of identical twins, but his twin brother survived only a few days. Alfred followed his older brothers as a painter, and his work was first accepted by the Royal Academy in 1843, after which he regularly exhibited there until 1890, as well as with the Society of British Artists. He was close to his brother Sidney Richard Percy, and boarded with the Percys in 1857 at their home Florence Villa, in Wimbledon. He settled in Reigate in Surrey around 1860, and the 1861 UK census lists him as boarding with Mr. and Mrs. Fitzsimon. Then in 1870 he was at Mead Vale in Redhill, Surrey. He married his housekeeper, a widow named Ann Hutchence at Reigate, Surrey in 1888. Ann, who was ten years his junior, had been a member of Alfred's household during the 1881 UK Census, when she had a 19-year old daughter named Ada Louisa Hutchence in the same house. Alfred and Ann moved in 1895 to 40 Croydon Road in Reigate, close to his brother Arthur Gilbert, who lived on Canterbury Road in West Croydon, but unfortunately died that same year. Alfred died in Reigate on December 16, 1905.

   Charles Willliams (b. 1824), was the twin brother of Alfred. He died sortly after birth.

    

4. Sidney Richard Percy (1821-1886), the son of Edward Williams and Ann Hildebrant, was born Sidney Richard Williams in 1821 in London. He was taught to paint by his father and older brothers, and early on showed talent as a landscape painter. Although his early paintings were signed "Sidney Williams", he used the name "Percy" from the age of 20 onwards to differentiate his paintings from those of his father and brothers. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1842, and exhibited at the British Institution, and the Society of British Artists as well. Most of his paintings are landscapes of North Wales, Devon, Yorkshire, the Lake District, and Skye, with cows at the edge of lakes or in the heather. He was also a competent photographer, and many of his paintings used figures painted from the many photographs he took of gypsies that frequented the Barnes Commons. Seven of his photographs are in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

   

   Sidney Williams signed his name as Sidney Richard Percy Williams when he married Emily Charlotte Fairlam on June 10, 1857 in the Barnes Parish Church. Emily, one of the younger children of a large family, had been born on July 5, 1835 in central London (probably Westminster), and baptized Dec. 23, 1835 at Christ Church in St. Marylebone, Westminster. Her parents were Richard Wilcox Fairlam (1802-1851) and Mary Ann Shepheard (1806-1872). Emily's father listed his occupation at various times as pawn broker, victualler, and wine and spirit merchant. Sidney's address at the time of his marriage was 32 Castlenau Villa in Barnes, where he had lived with his father beginning in 1846, then after his father's 1855 death he remained at 32 Castelenau with with his brothers George and Alfred.

   When Sidney and Emily married in 1857, they moved to Florence Villa in Wimbledon, Surrey, where their first three children were born. They then moved with their family in 1863 to Buckinghamshire, where they bought a large house in Great Missenden known as Hill House, and here their youngest child Herbert Sidney Percy was born. Sidney was at the peak of his popularity at this time, with sufficient income for his wife to indulge in her extravagant tastes, which apparently included a carriage and several servants. Sidney travelled to Italy, Switzerland and France in 1865, spending part of his time there with the painter William Callow, a neighbor of his from Great Missenden. However, his travels were cut short, and he returned to Britain in 1866 when war broke out between Prussia and Austria. His popularity waned in his later years, and he gave up Hill House in 1872 for a more modest home, as his income also waned, at Bickley Lodge in Redhill, Surrey. His final years were spent at Woodseat in Sutton, Surrey, to where he moved to in 1879, his final residence being in Woodseat at 34 Mulgrave Road. He died prematurely from complications of a horse riding accident, in which his leg had to be amputated. Despite the high prices his paintings once commanded, his finances at the time of his death were no longer robust, and his wife was supported in her old age by her Quaker son-in-law. She died in 1904 in Steyning, Sussex.

   
   Hill House, Great Missenden - The home of Sidney Richard Percy
   from 1863 to c.1872

   The children of Sidney and Emily Percy follow:

   children - PERCY

   Gordon Fairlam Percy (1858-1870), the oldest child of Sidney and Emily Percy, was probably born in Wimbledon, Surrey in 1858. He died suddenly on the south coast of England near Westhampnett, Sussex on Sept. 12, 1870 at the age of 12 when, according to his niece Sidney Dolores Percy Bunce, he was chasing his sister Amy along the beach and suddenly collapsed and died from a heart attack or stroke. His death date is known from a small gold ring that has  "In memory Gordon Fairlam Percy Ob^t 12 Sept 1870 AET 12 "  inscribed on the inside.

   Edith Maud Percy (c.1859-1883), was born about 1859 in Wimbledon, Surrey. She never married nor had children, and died from diptheria as a young woman in 1883 in Epsom, Surrey.

   Amy Dora Percy (1860-1957), was born in 1860 in Wimbledon, Surrey. Initially she followed in her father's footsteps and exhibited one painting at the Royal Academy. She also wrote some poetry and short novels that saw publication. She married Richard Freshfield (Fred) Reynolds (b. July 13, 1860), a Quaker, on Sept. 15, 1886 in Bedford Park, Chiswick, London. He was a well-known chemist whose firm, Reynolds and Branson of Leeds, provided medical supplies. After he died on June 1, 1907 in West Riding, West Yorkshire from complications related to a broken ankle, Amy then became well known as a writer of novels under the name of Mrs. Fred Reynolds. Between 1890 and 1936 she published 41 books, including an Idyll of the Dawn (1898) and a Quaker Wooing (1905), both of which are autobiographical in part. She was interred briefly with her daughter in Italy towards the end of WWII, and died on June 11, 1957 at Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria, Lancashire, England. Amy and Fred Reynolds had three children, who are listed below.

   Richard Frederick Reynolds (1888-1918), was born Dec. 5, 1888 in Leads, Yorkshire. He served during WWI as a lieutenant in the 6th Reserve Regiment of the Household Calvary and was killed in action (France?) on Oct. 2, 1918, which tragically was less than two months before the end of the war.

   Dora Eldrid Reynolds (1889-1958), was born in 1889 in Leeds, Yorkshire. Like her mother, she painted, and she wrote at least one novel, Whispering Dust (1913), which was republished in 2009. She never married and died in 1958 on the Isle of Wight.

   Kenneth Richard Reynolds (1892-1960), was born in 1892 in Headingly, Leeds, Yorkshire and married Sissie Jeanette Gray (1894-1987) in 1922. Their daughter Elnora Jeanette (Jan) Reynolds (b. 1925) is the author of the Williams Family of Painters, which is the source of much of the information in this family history. He died in 1960.

   Herbert Sidney Percy (1863-1932) who follows:

    

5. Herbert Sidney Percy, the son of Sidney Richard Percy and Emily Charlotte Fairlam, was born in 1863 at Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. Like his father he became a painter. He studied at the Copes School of Art in London, where he won a scholarship at the age of 18 to the Royal Academy Schools, the date of his admittance to a three-year term at the Antique School of the Royal Academy being Dec. 6, 1881 (his ivory ticket is below), with renewal to a second term in Dec. 1884. He won a second prize at the Academy in 1883 for a set of drawings, then received two silver medals from the Academy in 1884. He is also believed to have won a gold medal there, which must have been during his second term, and he exhibited at the regular exhibition of the Academy in 1900.

   In addition to the Royal Academy, Herbert also exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists (eight works), the Royal Society of Painters in Oils, and other venues. His paintings surface from time to time at several of the major art auction houses in England, and his paintings hang in the homes of many promient families. He considered himself primarily a portrait and miniature painter, as those brought in the big commissions, but he was equally adept at landscapes. He also restored paintings, and illustrated books and magazines, including some written by his close friend G. K. Chesterton. In some cases, he did the engravings for these himself. A plaster sculpture by him, and a beaten copper bas relief, both of which are still held by the family, demonstrate his versatility as an artist. Both probably date to his studies at the Academy.

   Herbert Sidney Percy married Maud Anna Maria Thompson on Oct. 22, 1891 at St. Michael and All Angels Church at Bedford Park, Chiswick, London. Maud, who had been born about 1866 in Wandsworth, Surrey, was the daughter of Theophilus Wathen Thompson (1832-1905), a wealthy London solicitor (lawyer), and Anna Maria Abbott (1833-1917), who was descended from a merchant family in the Levant (Turkey). Maud was also the sister of the well-known Shakespearean actress and silent film star Constance Crawley. Herbert died before Maud at Hammersmith, London in 1932, his address at the time being 29 Sycamore Gardens, and Maud died in a rest home, probably in Hammersmith, on either Nov. 14 or 15, 1948. Both are buried in the Hammersmith Borough Cemetery. The only child of Herbert and Maud is listed below.

   children - PERCY

   Sidney Dolores Percy (1892-1965), who follows.

   

    

6. Sidney Dolores Percy, the daughter of Herbert Sidney Percy and Maud Anna Maria Thompson, was born Aug. 19, 1892 in Chelsea, the artists quarter of London, and christened Oct. 21 at St. Michael and All Angels Church in the Bedford Park parish of Chiswick, which is the same church where her parents had married. She studied painting under her father and at the St. John's Wood School of Art in London, where she won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Art at Burlington House on Piccadilly Street. However, this was a time when women were not encouraged to study at the Academy, and the scholarship was withdrawn when the donating institution, the name of which is not known to us, realized she was not a man.

   Prior to World War I, Sidney became engaged to the South African lawyer, politican, and sportsman Oswald Pirow (1890-1959), when he was studying in England. However, he broke off their engagement when he returned to South Africa, and in 1919 he married another. Ultimately, Pirow became the Minister of Justice, and later the Minister of Defence for South Africa. He was a controversal figure at the start of World War II due to his Nazi sympathies, which effectively ended his political career. He and Sidney continued to correspond over the years, and a fascinating letter survives that he wrote to her describing meetings that he had in the late 1930s with Hitler and Mussolini.

   The death of Sidney's best friend and cousin Vere Crawley in 1918, along with the death of Vere's mother Constance in 1919, and Oswald Pirow's marriage that same year, no doubt made an impact on Sidney, and when the War ended at the end of 1919, she decided to emigrate to Canada. She made arrangements to employ as a nanny in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on the Canadian prairie, and she sailed to Quebec, Canada on the SS Megantic in 1921. Of her time in Winnipeg, we know nothing, but she did at one point visit her Aunt Ada and Uncle Alan Thompson in Niagara Falls, New York before traveling to Lake Louise in Alberta. There at the old Lake Louise Lodge, which has since burned down, she met Henry John (Jack) Bunce, the son of a mining agent named Robert Bunce (1858-1930) and his wife Margaret Hare (1861-1945). Sidney and Jack were subsequently married on Oct. 3, 1923 at St. Andrews Church on Richards and Georgia Streets in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Jack, like herself was English, having been born June 10, 1898 in Shepherds Bush, London.

   After their marriage Sidney and Jack settled in Pasadena, California, where she contracted polio in the mid 1930s, which resulted in a 10-year hiatus in her art. Although her family moved to Madera, California in 1936, where Jack had a job as a resort manager, Sidney and daughter Rosamond spent much of the time in nursing homes in the Los Angeles area, while Jack and daughter Jacqueline were at the Madera house. Sidney and Jack then moved to Santa Cruz, on the California coast, in 1946, and then inland to nearby Saratoga in 1959.

   After her recovery from polio in the 1940s, Sidney resumed painting, and became a well-known member of the Santa Cruz Art League, and later the Los Gatos Art Association, serving as president of both. She was primarily a portrait artist, and she did her best work in pastel crayon, but she was also proficient with oils. Below is a pastel self portrait she did of herself. Her husband Jack died at daughter Jacqueline's house in Saratoga, California on Oct. 8, 1959, and Sidney died at a hospital in San Jose, California on Dec. 22, 1965. She is buried in the Los Gatos Memorial Park Cemetery, close to Jack and daughter Rosamond. Please see the Bunce Genealogy for the children of Sidney and Jack.

   

    

    

REFERENCES:

1. Bunce, Sidney Dolores, 1948-1961, Biographies of Sidney Dolores Bunce: Family papers (handwritten-date unknown), magazine (1948) article, and newspaper (1961) article.

2. Frankau, Julia, 1904, William Ward A.R.A. - James Ward R.A. - Their lives and Works: MacMillan and Co., New York, 72 p. (333 p. with plates).

3. Fussel, George E., 1974, James Ward, R.A., Animal Painter 1769-1859 and his England: Michael Joseph, London, 179 p.

4. Grundy, Reginald, 1909, James Ward, R.A.: His Life and Works: Otto Ltd., London, 75. p.

5. Knowles, Michael, More about Alfred Walter Williams (1824-1905) Information supplied by Mr. Michael Knowles OBE, online article at People of 1887 - The History of Redhill and Reigate Surrey.

6. Nisbett, Patrick T., 2007, Family Group Sheet for Edward Williams (ver. 1): Ancestry.com.

7. Nisbett, Patrick T., 2008, Family Group Sheet for Edward Williams (ver. 2): FamilyTreeMaker Online

8. Reynolds, Jan, 1975, The Williams Family of Painters: Antique Collectors Club, 331 p.

9. Reynolds, Jan, 1997, Landscapes with Cattle: Antique Dealer and Collectors Guide, v. 51, n. 4 (Nov.), p. 42-45.

10. UK Census Records, 1841-1901 and Parish Baptism, Marriage and Burial Records: online databases available on Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org.

Please email corrections to Mike Clark